Risk Assessment

ALGA has established this interest group on risk assessment to provide structure and support for members that are interested in improving their knowledge across the elements of risk assessment. Environmental and human health risk assessment is a multi-disciplinary field encompassing the disciplines of public health, ecotoxicology, human toxicology, epidemiology, exposure science including fate and transport modelling and statistical inference. Early development work in Australia in the late 1980s focused on a risk-based approach to the assessment and mitigation of contaminants in the environment and such an approach has progressively been reinforced and developed both internationally and within Australia. While regulatory guidance has progressed, there are still many opportunities for development and RASIG would like to seek input from members who are using novel techniques within the industry (subject to client agreement). The group intends to provide a communication strategy across the member group and across industry, academia and government sectors.

The objectives of the group include:

Information provision and training for ALGA members

Seminars with invited international and national speakers

Regulatory updates and new international development updates

A conduit to provide the regulatory community, feedback on areas for improvement based on industry experiences

Industry collaboration on risk assessment across government and academia.

Current Steering Committee Members (renewed each calendar year):

After almost 25 years with the NSW EPA mostly as their risk specialist, Therese is now undertaking risk assessments for contaminated land, industrial facilities and major developments as well as reviews of such assessments for regulators and auditors. She has been involved in work on updating Australia’s chemical regulatory system and the development of State and National guidance documents. She has also lectured at the University of Sydney and University of Technology, Sydney.

Judith Betts, Environmental Scientist – Bayside Council

Judith has 18 years’ experience in local government in the areas of environmental management and environmental health. Judith is involved in the assessment of proposed developments, the management of environmental responsibilities of Council operations, and in regional committees related to legacy contamination in the Botany area.

David is based in Wellington, is a Contaminated Land Specialist and Chartered Chemist. Dave is an expert on the distribution, speciation, bioavailability and management of contaminants. Dave has had management, technical and on-site responsibilities for several major contaminated land projects in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. He has designed, supervised, reported on and audited remedial works, quantitative risk assessments, technical studies, intrusive ground investigations, and desk- based studies.

Neil Foster, Principal Advisor: Remediation – Iluka Resources Limited

With over 20 years’ experience served as a regulator, consultant, or in industry, Neil has specialised in the management of contaminated site related liabilities throughout the asset lifecycle. He has managed multi-skilled teams on numerous closure projects undertaken across Australasia, the United Kingdom and Mainland Europe. Sectors represented in his portfolio include mining, oil & gas, energy, chemical, pharmaceutical and general manufacturing. Neil was part of the team under Professor Paul Nathanail, who developed generic health assessment criteria in the United Kingdom, as well as a site specific health risk assessment tool.

Sarah Froh, Registrar & Director – Land and Environment Court of NSW

Sarah is an environmental lawyer with over 10 years of experience in contaminated land and remediation law. She has been involved with ALGA since its early days, being elected a Board Member in 2012 and re-elected in 2015. She has been involved in the NSW-Sydney Branch Committee from 2011. She has presented at a number of forums and chaired many others over the years.

Marcus Herrmann, Principal – Opus International Consultants

Marcus is a highly experienced environmental specialist with a unique blend of technical, regulatory, policy and risk management expertise. He has represented Auckland City Council from 2005 to 2017 in six Ministry for the Environment technical and policy review groups for the NESCS (NZ National Environmental Standard for Soil Contamination). Marcus was responsible for developing Auckland City Council's closed landfills asset management and contaminated land management plans and remediating Council land according to health risk prioritisation. In 2014 Marcus moved from project management to environmental health regulation, managing a team of specialists in contaminated land, hazardous substances, water quality and acoustics where he developed inter-agency regulatory relationships for asbestos and hazardous substances response between Auckland Council, WorkSafe NZ and the Auckland Regional Public Health Service.

Victor Kabay, Senior Health Risk Advisor – EPA Victoria

Victor has 15 years of experience in human health and environmental risk assessment and is currently Principal Expert (Environmental Public Health) at EPA Victoria. In this role, he is responsible for providing technical mentoring and scientific advice on matters relating to human health risks across the organisation. Prior to joining EPA in 2016, Victor worked as a consultant specialising in the assessment of risks associated with contaminated land. Victor has completed a Masters of Environment (Pollution and Waste Management) and a PhD on the fate and transport of pollutants on former gasworks sites.

Kylie Lloyd, Managing Director – ZOIC Environmental

Kylie is a Principal Environmental Scientist with over 20 years’ international experience. Kylie holds Graduate qualifications in Biology and Chemistry from University of Southern California and Post-Graduate qualifications Environmental Health and Medical Sciences from Boston University. Kylie uses her background in human health risk assessment to underpin her contaminated site assessment and remediation consulting and as a corner stone to her reviews as a NSW EPA Accredited Contaminated Site Auditor.

Aidan Marsh, Technical Manager – Biogas Systems

Aidan is the Technical Manager for Biogas Systems Australia, based in Brisbane. He is an Environmental Scientist with over 20 years' experience both in consultancy and industry in Australia, UK, Europe, Asia and the United States. His experience has helped him gain a comprehensive level of understanding of landfill gas management and soil gas. For several years, Aidan was a member of the team managing the Cranbourne landfill site and subsequent remediation of the Brookland Greens Estate. He was also the lead author for the Emission Reduction Fund Landfill Phytocaps Methodology commissioned by the Department of Environment, aiming to design a methodology that allows methane abatement in phytocaps to be estimated and measured.

John Massie, Principal: Land Contamination – Western Environmental

John has over 18 years' experience in the diagnosis and remediation of contaminated land. Project work has included both preliminary and detailed site investigations, quantitative health and ecological risk assessment as well as remediation of hydrocarbon, metal and pesticide contaminated soils. John has experience in undertaking human health risk assessments as well as providing reviews of health risk assessment in his previous role as contaminated sites auditor assistant. He also has wide ranging experience in soil ecotoxicology predominantly via the use of biosensors to interrogate and assess contaminated soil and water samples to support ecological risk assessment and develop site remediation strategies.

I have worked in the H&S consultancy industry since 2002 with the majority of the time spent in the UK with project work undertaken in the middle east. I emigrated to NZ in November 2017. I specialise in asbestos risk management and currently work for Precise Consulting & Laboratory in Auckland in the capacity of Branch Manager. I provide technical guidance and support across the business as well as training and consultancy services to clients throughout New Zealand.

Carmel most recently completed plant uptake modelling of petroleum hydrocarbons as part of her Masters thesis with University of Tasmania. She has an interest in Human Health Risk Assessment and the transfer of contaminants along the food chain. Carmel has been working as a consultant in the contaminated land field for 6 years and previously worked as a consultant to local government and private industry. For the first 14 years of her career Carmel worked in local government in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.